It truly is a feat of digital imagination, and the story's not bad either.

Reporter Polly Perkins (Paltrow) is tracking the mysterious disappearance of several scientists. She heads out to a meeting with someone who says he knows who's next, only to be ambushed by very real-looking Iron Giants who have taken over the streets of Manhattan.

Polly is nearly crushed by one of the evil machines (trying to save her ever-important camera), when Sky Captain Joe Sullivan (Law) comes to her aid.

So sets in motion the journey of our two protagonists as they travel from sky to sea to Shangri-La in an attempt to find out who is behind this mayhem, and to what purpose. It's a sinister, misguided one to be sure, but entirely appropriate.

Angelina Jolie makes a token appearance with a competetive edge that never really pans out, and Giovanni Ribisi plays the gadget-geeky Jimmy Olsen to Joe and Polly in this super hero equation. Michael Gambon shows up briefly as Polly's blink-and-you'll-miss-him editor at the fictional newspaper "The Chronicle," but perhaps the best cameo of all comes from cobbled archival footage of Sir Lawrence Olivier as the evil Dr. Totenkopf.

Paltrow does well in the role of conniving, yet likable (because she's so darn pretty) journalist Polly, and Law is equally well-cast as the dashing Joe Sullivan (because he's so darn pretty). While the chemistry between the two never seems to break out in hot passion, the two are believably amiable towards each other in a sparring lovebird, Hepburn and Tracy kind of way.

Paltrow and Law

All the elements are there to add up to one fine throw-back of an RKO Sunday Matinee that make this film an A-, and one heckuva a way to spend a couple of hours.

(Photos courtesy of Yahoo! Movies Canada)